Before ChatGPT, U.S. tech giants pledged “net zero” carbon emissions. Now, Big Tech’s carbon footprint surpasses Bitcoin’s.
The proliferation of generative artificial intelligence goods and services has resulted in an exponential growth in Big Tech’s carbon footprint. Just Amazon generates more carbon dioxide emissions annually than all Bitcoin mining combined.
The data shows that since 2019, when most of the biggest U.S. intU.S.t companies started to disclose their emissions, Big Internet has emitted more carbon dioxide into the environment than Bitcoin has since 2014.
The carbon footprint of bitcoin
The precise amount of carbon dioxide created by Bitcoin operations worldwide is practically hard to determine. No study teams can only access cost and power grid consumption information from some nations where Bitcoin mining is conducted.
Nevertheless, studies have demonstrated that comparing cost projections to actual mining activity can produce workable estimates.
According to a widely cited report by the United Nations University, between 2020 and 2021, “the global Bitcoin mining network consumed 173.42 Terawatt hours of electricity.”
The researchers concluded that if Bitcoin were a country, it would require more energy than Pakistan, a country with 220 million people.
By 2022, Bitcoin mining “may be responsible for 65.4 megatonnes of CO2 (MtCO2) per year,” according to a different research. The researchers estimate that this places the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin network about equal to that of Greece as a whole.
Detractors have used these figures to claim that Bitcoin’s value prospects are insufficient to counteract the possible harm carbon emissions could do to the environment. However, what would happen if we contrast these figures with businesses rather than nations?
The carbon footprint of big tech
Amazon’s stated carbon footprint easily outweighs Bitcoin’s projected annual impact. According to its self-report, in 2021, Amazon produced 71.54 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. In contrast to the approximate 65.4 million metric tons of Bitcoin, Amazon is unquestionably the more significant perpetrator.
We surpass the 100 million tons per year threshold if we include Google (which self-reported producing 14.3 million tons of carbon emissions for 2023) and Microsoft (15.3 million tons for 2023). This is even before we account for the growth of Amazon from 2021 to 2024 or Apple’s 15.6 million tons.
Even while it is scarcely scientific to directly compare a company’s declared carbon emissions with Bitcoin’s anticipated emissions, it is clear that big tech has a significantly larger carbon footprint than Bitcoin.
The data shows that Big Tech companies in the United States have emitted more carbon emissions since 2019 than all global Bitcoin mining operations have during the cryptocurrency’s entire existence, assuming that data centers for AI, BitcA.I.n, and cloud computing are generally equivalent in their power demands and carbon emissions.